House Redmyre
House Redmyre 'of Hoskagon is one of the Great Houses of Westeros and one of the principal houses of the Pride Islands. It rules over the Pride Islands, a beautiful and plentiful collection of islands off the east coast of Westeros, from the castle of the Iron Keep. The head of the house is the King or Queen of the Pride Islands and its Lady Paramount. House Redmyre's sigil is four red bats swooping against a black sky, and its house words are '"Forever Rising", although the phrase "May the Sun and Sky be Always at your Back" is a very common phrase associated with them, as they are associated with the Order of the Sphinx. House Redmyre is a descendant from the Valyrian peoples, possessing a Targaryen bloodline and thus they are often called 'the blind dragons'. The Redmyres are feared people, having made a name for themselves throughout history for being fierce warriors and obstinately determined people. The Pridemen have been involved in several wars with House Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, despite being on opposing sides of Westeros, and they were also involved in a naval war with House Tully and House Arryn, which ended in triumph for the Redmyres because they were far superior seamen and sailors. Aside from this, the Pride Islands are also famous for overseeing all trades between Braavos and the Seven Kingdoms, and for having solid relationships with all of the Free Cities of Essos. As a tradition, all of the nobles and commanders of the Pride Islands are taught High Valyrian. The ruling monarch (Or, in some occasions, that person's heir) is bestowed with the ancestral Valyrian steel longsword Midnight, and is named the Sword of the Night. Members of the family tend to have dark copper hair and bright blue eyes, and often being extremely pale (some of them, earning the name the Pale Pridemen). History Background House Redmyre is one of the Great Houses of Westeros. They control the Pride Islands, a large collection of islands that are located far off the coast of the Vale of Arryn and the Bite. It rules from the island of Hoskagon, specifically from the great Iron Keep, which is at the heart of the Pride Islands, and sits atop a massive vein of diamonds which net across the Narrow Sea, but are more easily accessible from the island of Hoskagon. As such, the Pride Islands are the richest islands off any coast in the Seven Kingdoms, and their trade is in diamonds, emeralds and suchlike. They maintain a massively successful system of trade with Westeros and Essos. The diamonds are famously purple, and are almost as valuable as Valyrian steel. The Iron Keep is so named because it was built by King Aegon the Conqueror and is considered completely impenetrable from any attack on the ground. The house was founded during Aegon Targaryen's conquest of Westeros, at which point Aegon flew from Dragonstone after establishing himself as King of the Seven Kingdoms - he discovered a collection of islands that were warring constantly due to the tribal houses that lived there. These houses had existed since before the Age of Heroes, and were called the Kingdom of Pride. He liberated these houses and built the Iron Keep on the central island of Hoskagon - the enormous Iron Keep was the largest establishments built on any island off of Westeros, and was viewed as impenetrable, netted underneath by fierce waterfalls and only accessible from a labyrinth of mines and from the heavily-guarded bridges that connected Hoskagon to the three closest Pride Islands. In addition, Aegon orchestrated a digging operation into the earth, where he discovered a massive vein of diamonds that, as he would soon find out, netted underneath the whole of Westeros. He left after three weeks of establishing plans, but intended to make further plans of manifesting these islands into a part of his kingdom. While he was at this, Lord Howland Arryn led a naval charge against the islands, prompting Rhaenys and Visenya to return on Aegon's behalf, atop their dragons - they smashed Howland's fleet on their winged mounts and Aegon proceeded to make plans for this territory. Howland tried to take the islands himself, but the chieftain of the main tribe, Lady Hera, killed him with the awkwardly-made ancestral Valyrian steel blade. The weapon was damaged by dragonfire during the battle. Twenty years later, Aegon sent one of his cousins, Argyle Velaryon the Red, and he married the tribal chieftain residing in the Iron Keep, founding the House of Redmyre. As a result, Argyle injected Valyrian blood into the Redmyre descendants, but they all maintained red hair instead of silver. On Aegon's final visit to the islands, Aegon took diamonds from the mines and then reforged the ancestral blade into the sword that would become known as Midnight, so named for the black-blue diamonds that would be fixed into both sides of the crossguard. Throughout the history of House Redmyre, they were involved in a series of wars - they fought with Braavos for seventy years after Aegon's death and eventually, the ancient King Hugor I Redmyre forged an amnesty between the 'Pride Islands' (Inspired by the main island being the High Valyrian word for 'Pride', and the kingdom of old being called the Kingdom of Pride) and the Free City of Braavos. This war became known as the Clash of the East and it cemented Frances I's legacy into the history of Westeros. Later on, they embarked on a twenty-year naval war with the Tullys of Riverrun, until Frances' heir King Argyle II the Stoat was killed by Lord Steffon Tully. Argyle was avenged by his ferocious eldest daughter Skylar, who decapitated Steffon and then took each of his daughters as hostages to extort a peace treaty out of Riverrun, at which point Skylar proceeded to return the girls to their home. At some point, they reached a trade dispute with House Arryn, which was settled in 103 AC. Queen Skylar, would later forge marriages between her ex-prisoners and her nephews, cementing an alliance with Riverrun. Queen Skylar's eldest son Argyle proved to be as ambitious as his mother was mighty, and after Skylar's death in 110 AC, he declared over her dead body that the Pride Islands would be prouder than they had ever been. Argyle was crowned by his twin brother Aurane, and the moment he rose from being crowned, he declared that the Stepstones would be theirs. When Daemon Targaryen made war against the Stepstones in the hopes of making up his own kingdom, he called upon the Pride Islands for submission and fealty to him, but Argyle, knowing that Daemon would never allow them to rule in their own right if they submitted, defied him. Thus, they joined the Triarchy and, after Daemon withdrew his crown and returned to Westeros, Argyle was among the men to declare himself King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea. However, since Argyle was first and foremost a warrior and knew little of true diplomacy, he proved unable to rule the Stepstones from Hoskagon, and lacked the men to maintain his kingdom, so he withdrew himself from the title. He would be the third King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea until the dissolution of the Triarchy. Argyle Seven years after the Dance, House Redmyre suffered a crippling blow when King Simond Redmyre the Centaur, who was crowned at the age of thirteen when his father and mother were poisoned by an unknown assassin, summoned the bastards of his father King Geryon (Seven in all, with three male and four female) and officially legitimized them. Unfortunately, three of them (Helios, Hannah and Mhaegen) were triplets and, when Simond declared that each of his siblings would have dominion over an individual territory of the Pride Islands, they declared Hoskagon since the other islands had been taken and they couldn't reach an agreement over who would own Kayone (The island that Simond had given them). They turned on him and decided to take Hoskagon for themselves. However, Simond's four other bastard siblings rallied behind him and, when the three rebels bought a small army of sellswords and attacked Hoskagon, they were repelled. Mournful at what had happened to his brothers and sisters, Simond abdicated, allowing his brother Prince Hugo to take his place. One of the most complicated of affairs suffered in the existence of House Redmyre was during 160 AC, during which one of their five previous wars with the Iron Islands - wars that had killed three ironborn kings and two Redmyre kings - when a massive Iron Fleet ventured for months to overrun the Pride Islands, after which Queen Artemys II Redmyre suffered the deaths of all three of her daughters and two of her sons in the massive and famous four-day Battle of the Narrow Sea. She managed to destroy the Iron Fleet, but the deaths of her children and heirs ignited Artemys's wrath and she launched a massive campaign against the now-vulnerable Iron Islands. This campaign was halted by the fleet of Prince Viserys Targaryen, who nulled the conflict between the Redmyres and the Greyjoys, demanding also that the execution of every heir of House Greyjoy over the age of fourteen - this led to five Greyjoy executions, and became known as the Slaughter of the Sons, which was the official name of this particular war between the Pride Islands and the Iron Islands. Despite Viserys's efforts, the two houses would continue to bitterly hate one another. By far, the greatest of rulers in the second century since Aegon's Conquest was King Matagar III Redmyre, commonly called Matagar the Mighty. In 184 AC, Matagar was married to Princess Guinevere Martell, and they had three grown sons Maekar, Jaron and Geryon. However, House Bluemyre of Severyne, the second largest of the Pride Islands, conspired against House Redmyre - they started removing Matagar's heirs by killing the first two in a hunting accident and a rigged jousting tournament that killed Jaron. Geryon, who was thirteen years old, saw through the incidents and fled the Pride Islands, and Jahaerys Bluemyre, the Lord of Severyne, sneaked into the Iron Keep and raped Guinevere, before strangling her. Seeing his wife dead, Matagar was forced to flee, and on his way out Jahaerys scarred him with an arrow. House Bluemyre named themselves the new Great House of the Pride Islands, only for Matagar to return with the combined army of the other Pride Islands and smashed the Bluemyres in a battle that lasted barely four hours. For usurping House Redmyre, Jahaerys was put on trial and he demanded a trial by combat - Matagar fought against him in the trial and, wielding the ancestral Valyrian blade Midnight, couldn't fail to win the duel that followed, killing his usurper. He was named the Mighty after this, considering that he was almost destructively courageous. In 196 AC, Prince Victarion Redmyre, the grandson of King Matagar, travelled to King's Landing so that he could marry his betrothed Princess Ellaria Martell of Dorne. Since Ellaria was a courtier of Daeron's, the marriage would take place in the Great Sept of Baelor. Victarion travelled several days to reach King's Landing, and he married Ellaria, but in the marriage bed she shed her face and revealed herself to be a Faceless Man who then opted to kill Daeron. The Faceless Man was killed before he could attack by guards, and it was revealed that Ellaria had been dead for several days with the Faceless Man as an impersonator. Outraged and suspecting the Martells, Victarion appealed to Matagar to wage war on Dorne, but Matagar, wizened by his experiences during the incidents that made him the Dragonheart, refused. Victarion stormed over to Dorne himself to confront the Martells all on his own, but Matagar sent Victarion's brothers to stop him. They pursued him to Starfall, where a fierce duel ensued, where Victarion severely wounded two of his brothers but was himself defeated and attainted for his actions. Victarion would later be called Victarion the Wrathful. The Faceless Man was revealed to have been hired by Daemon Blackfyre to try and destabilise the relations between the Targaryens, Redmyres and Martells, before confronting the Targaryens himself in the First Blackfyre Rebellion. Throughout its history, House Redmyre was plagued by small but inconsistent civil wars between its houses, each of them warring for ownership of the diamonds that the Pride Islands would famously provide. These wars would continue on until after the War of the Usurper, during which Queen Skylar Redmyre, the daughter and heir of King Caradog Redmyre, smashed the Martell army at the Battle of the Bite and triumphed later in the Battle of the Trident. Upon winning these battles and the war's end, Skylar proceeded to pacify the civil wars by neutralising each house under solemn oath to distribute the diamonds fairly. Skylar, popularly known thereafter as the Queen of Bats for intricate knowledge of what happened in her kingdom, which was extraordinary even for a queen, developed a reputation as a fearsome warrior and an obstinate ruler. Military Strength By the time the series begins, there are eight-to-nine thousand men under Redmyre command, which consists of the majority of warriors in the Pride Islands. It is often remarked that the Redmyre armies are larger than the fifteen islands ought to be able to sustain. While most of the time, men lead armies, only women in the royal family and in high ranking positions in the military are allowed to enter battles. The Redmyre army is always divided into the following legions: The Golden, Silver, Emerald, Sapphire, Bronze and Ruby legions. The second-in-command to the Sword of the Night (Who is officially the commander of the army) is the commander of the Golden legion. The Sword of the Night, who wields the Valyrian steel sword Midnight, is granted command of the entire army. One of the most distinguishing elements of House Redmyre is the fact that its soldiers are among the most honourable and steadfast forces in the Seven Kingdoms - if they were to lose their commander, they would hunt down the killer to the ends of the earth if need be. If their commander ordered them to hunt down a particular man or woman for his own reasons, they would do so. Skylar Redmyre remembers her father telling her that, when he served in the Silver legion, the notion was drilled into him that he ought to seek vengeance on any soldier who strikes down a man he admired. The Pridemen's blood bonds are among the greatest examples of honour to be found in Westeros. In training to be a warrior in the Redmyre armies, one must be trained in combat from an extremely young age, and be familiar with every form of hand-to-hand combat known to man by the time they are twenty. They will have to be trained in archery, swordsmanship, unarmed combat and even being tutored in leadership. Most of all, they must be trained in medical work so that they can heal their own comrades on the battlefield independently. They will be kept in battalions of up to seventy-five or a hundred men, and they will build teamwork and leadership skills throughout their entire existence. These groups will elect a legionary by a show of daggers, and that leader will be their representative on councils and tribunals, and will earn absolute responsibility for the actions of their troops. Historically, the legionaries have even been known to be fifteen years old, but commonly they have been at least twenty-five. Through great accomplishments in battle, the legionaries can be elected to be commanders. Relationships Members * King {Caradog I Redmyre}, King of the Pride Islands. Killed during the Siege of Great Wyk. * Queen Robyn Reyne, Queen of the Pride Islands. ** Prince {Caradog II Redmyre}, Prince of Hoskagon and his firstborn son. Killed by Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard during the Battle of the Trident. *** Princess Fiona Hightower, his widower and the daughter of Lord Jon Hightower **** {Rhaella Redmyre}, their stillborn daughter **** Ser Reginald Redmyre, their firstborn son, called the Knight of Bricks **** {Aemon Redmyre}, their secondborn son. Killed by a fever at the age of three ** Lord {Jaime Redmyre}, Sword of the Night and his secondborn son. Killed by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen of Dragonstone during the Battle of the Trident. ** Princess {Victoire Redmyre}, Princess of Hoskagon and his firstborn daughter. Dies of greyscale. ** Queen Skylar II Redmyre, Queen of the Pride Islands and his secondborn daughter, called the Queen of Bats. *** King {Arthur Redmyre}, King of the Pride Islands and her husband. Lost at sea. **** Prince Silas Redmyre, her firstborn son **** Redmyre, her secondborn son. Murdered by Ryam Umber. ***** Lady Stacie Umber, his wife ****** Joanna Redmyre, their daughter ****** Alliser Redmyre, Joanna's deformed twin brother, called the Elf **** Ser Tytos Redmyre, her thirdborn son **** Charmaine Redmyre, her daughter ** Prince {Victarion Redmyre}, Prince of Hoskagon and his thirdborn son. Killed during the Siege of Great Wyk. *** Lady Freya Hightower, Victarion's widow, currently in Hightower. **** Tanda Hightower, her firstborn daughter, currently in Highgarden, betrothed to Lance Tyrell **** Kevan Hightower, her son, currently a ward of Prince Doran Martell of Dorne, arranged to marry Sarella Dayne ** Lord Raymond Redmyre, the First Admiral of the Redmyre Fleet and his fourthborn son. Called Raymond the Red. *** Lady Alys Clegane, his wife ** Princess Esme Redmyre, his thirdborn daughter. *** Lord Ferryn Tarth, her husband. **** Ciara Redmyre, their daughter Ancestors * Prince Argyle the Red, the First King of the Pride Islands and legendary founder of House Redmyre. * King Hugor I Redmyre, the firstborn son of Argyle the Red and second King of the Pride Islands, * King Argyle II the Stoat, Frances I's only son and the third King of the Pride Islands, killed by Lord Steffon Tully of Riverrun. * Queen Skylar I Redmyre, firstborn daughter of King Argyle II. One of the most notable Pale Pridemen. * Four unnamed daughters of King Argyle II. * King Argyle III Redmyre, the self-proclaimed King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea following Daemon Targaryen. * Unnamed seventh King of the Pride Islands, killed during the Battle of Harlaw * King Matagar I Redmyre, * Queen Artemys II Redmyre, third Queen of the Pride Islands during the Battle of the Narrow Sea and the Slaughter of the Sons. * King Matagar II Redmyre, eighth king and ninth monarch, died peacefully at the age of 80 * Several Targaryen princesses. * King Matagar III the Mighty, the greatest Redmyre king, Hero of the Bluemyre Uprising. Surrendered kingship to his son at the age of 80. Died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 103. * Prince Victarion Redmyre the Wrathful, killed during the Second Blackfyre Rebellion. * Victarion's two brothers, each of them killed during the Third Blackfyre Rebellion. Category:Great houses Category:Great Houses